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LOWER LAKE — The Lower Lake Trojans will be playing for their second tournament title in as many weeks when they meet Marysville on Saturday at 6 p.m. in the championship game of the Colusa Tournament.

Lower Lake won its seventh straight game on Friday night with a 63-32 dissection of Corning High School in the semifinals. The Trojans (8-3) took a 31-point lead into the fourth quarter that used a running clock the entire way.

“I challenged the team,” Lower Lake head coach Tim Biasotti said of his pre-game talk with players. “I wasn’t happy with the way we played yesterday (a 53-50 first-round win over Williams). “Corning is the No. 5-ranked team in the Northern Section. I told them that if we played like we did in our last game, it could be a long night. They took it to heart.”

In fact, the Trojans played so well in the first half that the Cardinals had trouble functioning on offense.

“We set the tone early on,” Biasotti said of Lower Lake’s man-to-man defense. “They didn’t know what to do. They were kind of shocked.”

The Trojans led 14-4 after one quarter and 38-14 by halftime even though a key component of their offense (Darian James) missed the game with an ankle injury. Izzac Carver took his place in the starting lineup and led Lower Lake with 17 points, the only Trojan to score in double figures as part of their balanced attack.

“They’re unselfish,” Biasotti said of his players. “They make the extra pass, sometimes too many passes. They share the ball well.”

While the Trojans were pulling away from the Cardinals during one stretch of the game, Biasotti said his team had a freshman, three sophomores and one senior on the floor.

“The young guys are playing great and the seniors are playing great when they’re in there,” he said. “This was a definition of a team win.”

Marysville, Lower Lake’s opponent in the championship game is ranked either first or second in the Northern Section.

“They’re good,” Biasotti said.

The Marysville game is Lower Lake’s final tuneup for the start of North Central League I play on Jan. 2 at home against St. Helena.

In other boys basketball action Friday:

Clear Lake 70, St. Bernard 49

At Eureka, the Clear Lake Cardinals traveled a long way to play the St. Bernard Crusaders in a non-league game and they made sure the three-hour trip to Eureka wasn’t wasted while improving to 8-1 on the season.

“It’s nice to come all the way up here and come away with a win, and a convincing win,” Clear Lake head coach Scott De Leon said. “I wanted the guys to come out with intensity and get after it and we did.”

Capitalizing on numerous St. Bernard turnovers early on, the Cardinals carved out a 27-10 first-quarter lead as Jaron Mertle scored eight of his team-leading 19 points in the opening period.

“He hit some big shots for us,” De Leon said of Mertle.

Other standouts were center Tj Marcks, who scored eight of his 15 points in the fourth quarter, Rodrigo Lupercio and Josh Damiata, according to De Leon.

“Tj was an absolute beast inside in that fourth quarter, both rebounding and scoring,” De Leon said. “He was a matchup problem for them.”

Lupercio, the Cardinals’ point guard, dished out 11 assists.

“He did really well distributing the ball,” De Leon said.

Damiata took three charges on defense and added seven points on offense.

“He did great,” De Leon said.

“It was a really good effort,” De Leon added of his team’s performance. “We had a solid night tonight.”

Darius Ford joined Mertle and Marcks in double figures with 12 points.

Clear Lake is off until Dec. 27 when it opens against Franklin of Stockton in the first round of the Falcon Shootout in Colfax. The tournament runs through Dec. 29.

Clear Lake also beat St. Bernard in the junior varsity game. The score was not reported.

JV basketball

Middletown 55, Lower Lake 33

At Cloverdale, Roberto Chaires led the way with 10 points and Justin Hollingsworth and Cole Ketchum each had eight as the Middletown JVs beat Lower Lake in the consolation semifinals of the Cloverdale Tournament.

“They looked good,” Middletown coach Jon Hoogendoorn said of his players. “Right now I have a solid 10-man rotation and getting everyone a lot of minutes doesn’t seem to be a problem.”

Middletown (4-3) will play either St. Helena or Laytonville for the consolation championship Saturday at 4 p.m.

Tanner Pachie and Luke Hoogendoorn each had seven points for the Mustangs, who dropped a 54-42 decision to Eureka in first-round action on Thursday. In that loss, Jorge Fonseca led the Mustangs with 11 points, Greyson Rockwell contributed 10 and Pachie had six.